Hasta La Gadget!

Weird? Yes. Creepy? Yes. Successful? Of course!

The latest crop of Palm Pre ads may not be a favorite among some viewers but it does achieve its purpose of getting consumers to talk about the product, says Gary Koepke, co-founder and executive creative director at Modernista, the agency behind the Pre ads. So mission accomplished, says Koepke in an interview with Ad Age.

“The Pre is probably being talked about more than other phones right now because of the marketing and advertising, and that’s a good thing,” says Koepke.  “Could the ads work harder to show exactly how the phone works? Yes, but we knew it would be polarizing people to have a woman not shout at them and tell an interesting story.”

Palm’s recent TV commercials featuring a glowing actress, Tamara Hope, speaking in what is supposed to be a soothing voice about the product’s features. The idea is to find the middle ground between the Apple iPhone commercial that showcases the phone and its apps without having a real person in the ad and the ‘life on BlackBerry‘ ads, says Koepke. But the television spot has riled up bloggers for being “creepy.” The ad has also inspired a few YouTube parodies.

Palm has shown no signs that it wants to pull the plug on the ads so it is likely the company is happy with it. Now whether all this buzz has translated into Pre sales is something we won’t know until Palm and Sprint release their quarterly earnings next month.  So far, the two companies have not commented about the number of Pre phones sold since the device’s launch on June 6.

What do you think of the Pre ad? Let us know in the comments.

See Also:

• Nothing Unusual in Palm Pre Return Rates, Say Analysts
• Palm Pre Works With iTunes Again. For Now
• Palm Unveils Its Long-Awaited Smartphone, the Pre
• Palm Pre

When we last saw this fair-faced Pre spokesperson, she was sitting on a rock in an otherwise open field playing choreagrapher to a sea of robed individuals encircling her. This latest ad takes a decidedly simpler approach reminiscent of the vibe set in the Meet the Pre series, though we can’t say for sure her if her followers aren’t just waiting off-camera for the next directive. Also, interesting choice of onomatopoeia for sliding through the webOS cards, we imagine there’s a certain, Redmond-based company out there delighted by the subtle (and probably unintentional) reference. See the ad for yourself after the break — and in case you’re wondering, that song that’ll be stuck in your head all day is “Doot Doot” by Freur.

[Via Pre Central]

Continue reading Video: New Palm Pre ad takes serene approach, just goes with the flow

Filed under: Cellphones

Video: New Palm Pre ad takes serene approach, just goes with the flow originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 13 Jul 2009 17:16:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Apple’s new ad takes solid aim at Microsoft’s recent much-talked-about Laptop Hunters ad series with the Apple style fully intact. In other words, it’s really, really smug.

The ad has a Lauren-type actress give her list of specifications, and of course, bunch by bunch, the drab-suited PCs are disqualified until she gets to “something that works,” at which point all the remaining PCs leave. Since we’ve been seeing some flames for criticizing the Laptop Hunters series, let me be one of many to say that I hate this and all other “I’m a Mac” ads. Sure, Laptop Series was kind of fluffy and without either substance or style, but at least it wasn’t condescending and smug. Now, what say you, commenters? [Apple]

Looks like Apple finally has something to say to Lauren, Giampaulo, Lisa, Jackson, and any future laptop hunters showcased in Microsoft’s new commercial series. In a statement to Macworld, spokesperson Bill Evans goes through the usual list of touted Mac features — security, stability, design — before quipping, “a PC is no bargain when it doesn’t do what you want.” Ouch. He continues by “agreeing” with Microsoft that, yes, everyone does think its computers are cool. We don’t expect Redmond’s ready to end the ad campaign anytime, and as enjoyable as this statement is, our only hope is that the gang at Cupertino ups the ante and retaliates tit-for-tat by sending Hodgman on an filmed adventure through Best Buy.

Filed under: Laptops

Apple bites back at Laptop Hunter ads, ‘agrees’ with Microsoft that Macs are cool originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 16 Apr 2009 21:21:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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TiVo heard you liked ads, so it’s putting ads in your pause menu so you can watch ads while you skip ads. Already rolled out on older Series2 hardware last December, Dave Zatz posts that the 11.0c software update for Series3 / TiVo HD hardware brings the new “feature” of ads popping up while viewers are time shifting. That can show up as a “More information” prompt for some shows, as seen above, but will hold advertisements on certain programs. The prompt will only show up once per recording, but if this new form of advertising bugs you, TiVo Community user bfdtv instructs that permanently hiding the progress bar can be achieved by pressing pause, press down to hide the popup, press play again, then enter SELECT-PLAY-SELECT-PAUSE-SELECT, which can also be reversed by using the code again while watching a recording. Still, we doubt the ad skipping arms race will end here.

Read – TiVo’s Pause Menu Spam Hits S3/HD Units
Read – TivoHD Overview, Q&A, Setup, Tips

Filed under: HDTV, Home Entertainment

TiVo update brings pause menu ads to Series3 & TiVo HD owners originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 06 Apr 2009 04:34:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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